DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 


CALIFORNIA  AND  THE 
CALIFORNIANS 

Al^D 

THE   ALPS    OF 
KING-KERN  DIVIDE 

BY 

DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 

President  of  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University 


New  Edition 


San  Francisco 


W^t  ?lfllf)itakec=Eap  Company 

Incorporated 

1903 

iAN    1905 


Copyright,  1898 

by 

Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Company 

Reprinted  by  permission 

of  Mr.  Walter  H.  Page 

Editor  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly 

Copyright,  1903 

by 

The  Whitaker  &  Ray  Company 


5  n(^ 


PRE  FA  TOR  Y  NO  TE. 


This  essay  was  fit st  published  in  the  Atlantic 
jMotithly  for  November,  189S.  It  is  here  reprinted 
by  the  kind  pertnission  of  the  publishers  of  the 
Atlantic  Monthly,  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  and 
of  the  editor,  Mr.   Walter  H.  Page. 


CALIFORNIJ  AND 

THE    CALIFORNIANS 


BT      DAVID      STARR      JORDAN 

PRESIDENT      OF      STANFORD      UNIVERSITY 


The  Callfornian  loves  his  state  because  his  state 
loves  him,  and  he  returns  her  love  with  a  fierce  affec- 
tion that  men  of  other  regions  are  slow  to  under- 
stand.     Hence  he  is  impatient  of  outside  criticism. 
Those  who  do  not  love  California  cannot  understand 
her,  and,  to  his  mind,  their  shafts,  however  aimed, 
fly  wide  of  the  mark.    Thus,  to  say  that  California  is 
commercially  asleep,  that  her  industries  are  gambling 
ventures,   that  her  local  politics  is  in  the  hands  of 
professional     pickpockets,     that     her     small     towns    ' 
are  the  shabbiest  in   Christendom,   that  her  saloons 
control  more  constituents  than  her  churches,  that  she 
r^  is  the  slave  of  corporations,  that  she  knows  no  such  ' 
\    thing  as  public  opinion,  that  she  has  not  yet  learned 
,     to  distinguish  enterprise  from  highway  robbery,  nor 
^-^   reform  from  blackmail, — all  these  things  and  many 
more   the   Californian   may   admit   in   discussion,    or 
may  say  for  himself,  but  he  does  not  find  them  accept- 
able from  others.     They  may  be  more  or  less  true, 
in  certain  times  and  places,  but  the  conditions  which 


.;    C.ll.irOKM.I  .IM)  THE  C.IIJFORMJNS 

have   pcTiiiittcil   them  will   likewise  mend  them.      It 

is  said  in  the  Alps  that  "not  all  the  vulgar  people 

who  come  to  Chamouny  can  ever  make  Chamouny 

vulgar."      For   similar    reasons,    not    all    the   sordid 

people  who  drift  overland  can  ever  vulgarize  Cali- 

h\  fornia.     Her  fascination  endures,  whatever  the  acci- 

kT  dents  of  population. 

v^  vV  The  charm  of  California  has,  in  the  main,  three 

'^    {f    ^    sources — scenery,  climate,  and  freedom  of  life. 

To  know  the  glory  of  California  scener},  one 
must  live  close  to  it  through  the  changing  years. 
PVom  Siskiyou  to  San  Diego,  from  Mendocino  to 
Mariposa,  from  Tahoe  to  the  Farallones,  lake,  crag, 
or  chasm,  forest,  mountain,  valley,  or  island,  river, 
bay,  or  jutting  headland,  every  one  bears  the  stamp 
of  its  own  peculiar  beauty,  a  singular  blending  of 
richness,  wildness,  and  warmth.  Coastwise  every- 
where sea  and  mountains  meet,  and  the  surf  of  the 
cold  Japanese  current  breaks  in  turbulent  beauty 
against  tall  "  rincones "  and  jagged  reefs  of  rock. 
Slumbering  amid  the  hills  of  the  Coast  Range, 

«'A  misty  camp  of  mountains  pitched  tumultuously," 

lie  golden  valleys  dotted  with  wide-limbed  oaks,  or 
smothered  under  over-weighted  fruit  trees.  Here, 
too,  crumble  to  ruins  the  old  Franciscan  missions, 
each  in  its  own  fair  valley,  passing  monuments  of 
California's  first  page  of  written  history. 

Inland    rises    the    great    Sierra,    with    spreading 


"A  misty  camp  of  mountains  pitched  tumultuously 


CALIFORNIA  AND  THE  CAIJFORNIANS    9 

ridge  and  foothill,  like  some  huge,  sprawling  centi- 
pede,, its  granite  back  unbroken  for  a  thousand  miles. 
Frost-torn  peaks,  of  every  height  and  bearing,  pierce 
the  blue  wastes  above.  Their  slopes  are  dark  with 
forests  of  noble  pines  and  giant  sequoias,  the  mighti- 
est of  trees,  in  whose  silent  aisles  one  may  wander  all 
day  long  and  see  no  sign  of  man.  Dropped  here  and 
there  rest  purple  lakes  which  mark  the  craters  of  dead 
volcanoes,  or  which  srvvell  the  polished  basins  where 
vanished  glaciers  did  their  last  work.  Through  moun- 
tain meadows  run  swift  brooks,  over-peopled  with 
trout,  while  from  the  crags  leap  full-throated  streams, 
to  be  half  blown  away  in  mist  before  they  touch  the 
valley  floor.  Far  down  the  fragrant  canons  sing  the 
green  and  troubled  rivers,  twisting  their  way  lower 
and  lower  to  the  common  plains.  Even  the  hopeless 
stretches  of  alkali  and  sand,  sinks  of  lost  streams,  in 
the  southeastern  counties,  are  redeemed  by  the  de- 
lectable mountains  that  on  all  sides  shut  them  in. 
Everywhere  the  landscape  seems  to  swim  in  crystal- 
line ether,  while  over  all  broods  the  warm  California 
sun.  Here,  if  anywhere,  life  is  worth  living,  full  and 
rich  and  free. 

v"  As  there  is  from  end  to  end  of  California  scarcely 
one  commonplace  mile,  so  from  one  end  of  the  year 
to  the  other  there  is  hardly  a  tedious  day.  Two 
seasons  only  has  California,  but  two  are  enough  if 
each  in  its  way  be  perfect.     Some  ha\c  called  the 


10  CALIFORNIA  AND  '/'///:  C.J I./FORNIANS 


climate  "  monotonous,"  but  bo,  no  cl(jul)t,  is  good 
health.  In  terms  of  Eastern  experience,  the  seasons 
may  be  defined  as  "  late  in  the  spring  and  early  in 
the  fall"; 

"Haifa  year  of  clouds  and  flowers,  half  a  year  of  dust  and  sky," 

according  to  Bret  Harte.  But  with  the  dust  and  sky 
comes  the  unbroken  succession  of  days  of  sunshine, 
the  dry  invigorating  air,  and  the  boundless  overflow 
of  vine  and  orchard.  Each  season  in  its  turn  brings 
its  fill  of  satisfaction,  and  winter  or  summer  we  regret 
to  look  forward  to  change,  because  we  would  not  give 
up  what  we  have  for  the  remembered  delights  of  the 
season  that  is  past.  If  one  must  choose,  in  all  the 
fragrant  California  year  the  best  month  is  June,  for 
then  the  air  is  softest,  and  a  touch  of  summer's  gold 
overlies  the  green  of  winter.  But  October,  when  the 
first  swift   rains 

"dash  the  whole  long  slope  with  color," 

and  leave  the  clean-washed  atmosphere  so  absolutely 
transparent  that  even  distance  is  no  longer  blue,  has 
a  charm  not  less  alluring. 
^  So  far  as  man  is  concerned,  the  one  essential  fact 
is  that  he  is  never  the  climate's  slave;  he  is  never 
beleaguered  by  the  powers  of  the  air.  Winter  and 
summer  alike  call  him  out  of  doors.  In  summer  he 
is  not  languid,  for  the  air  is  never  sultry.  In  most 
regions  he  is  seldom  hot,   for  in  the  shade  or  after 


CALIFORNIA  AND  THE  CALIFORNIANS  13 

nightfall  the  dry  air  is  always  cool.  When  it  rains, 
the  air  may  be  chilly,  in  doors  or  out,  but 
it  is  never  cold  enough  to  make  the  re- 
morseless base-burner  a  welcome  alternative. 
The  habit  of  roasting  one's  self  all  winter  long 
is  unknown  in  California.  The  old  Californian 
seldom  built  a  fire  for  warmth's  sake.  When  he  w^s 
cold  in  the  house  he  went  out  of  doors  to  get  warm. 
The  house  was  a  place  for  storing  food  and  keeping 
one's  belongings  from  the  wet.  To  hide  in  it  from  the 
weather  would  be  to  lay  a  false  stress  on  its  function. 
The  climate  of  California  is  especially  kind  to 
childhood  and  old  age.  Men  live  longer  there,  and, 
if  unwasted  by  dissipation,  strength  of  body  is  better 
y<fonserved.  To  children  the  conditions  of  life  are 
particularly  favorable.  California  could  have  no 
better  advertisement  at  some  world's  fair  than  the 
visible  demonstration  of  this  fact.  A  series  of  meas- 
urements of  the  children  of  Oakland  has  recently  been 
taken,  in  the  interest  of  comparative  child  study;  and 
should  the  average  of  these  from  different  ages  be 
worked  into  a  series  of  moulds  or  statues  for  com- 
parison with  similar  models  from  Eastern  cities,  the 
result  would  surprise.  The  children  of  California, 
other  things  being  equal,  are  larger,  stronger,  and 
better  formed  than  their  Eastern  cousins  of  the  same 
age.  This  advantage  of  development  lasts,  unless 
cigarettes,  late  hours,  or  grosser  forms  of  dissipation 


11  C  II.IIOKM.I  .l\n   rilE  C.JL/rORMJ.WS 


come  in  to  destroy  it.  A  wholesome,  sober,  out-of- 
door  life  in  California  invariably  means  a  vigorous 
maturity. 

A  third  element  of  charm  in  California  is  that  of 
personal  freedom.  The  dominant  note  in  the  social 
development  of  the  state  is  individualism,  with  all 
that  it  implies  of  good  or  evil.  Man  is  man,  in  Cali- 
fornia: he  exists  for  his  own  sake,  not  as  part  of  a 
social  organism.  He  is,  in  a  sense,  superior  to  society. 
In  the  first  place,  it  is  not  his  society;  he  came  from 
some  other  region  on  his  own  business.  Most  likely, 
he  did  not  intend  to  stay;  but,  having  summered  and 
wintered  in  California,  he  has  become  a  Californian, 
and  now  he  is  not  contented  anywhere  else.  Life  on 
the  coast  has,  for  him,  something  of  the  joyous  irre- 
sponsibility of  a  picnic.  The  feeling  of  children 
released  from  school  remains  with  grown  people. 

"A  Western  man,"  says  Dr.  Amos  Grisrwold 
Warner,  "  is  an  Eastern  man  who  has  had  some 
additional  experiences."  The  Californian  is  a  man 
from  somewhere  or  anywhere  in  America  or  Europe, 
typically  from  New  England,  perhaps,  who  has 
learned  a  thing  or  two  he  did  not  know  in  the  East, 
and  perhaps  has  forgotten  some  things  it  would  have 
been  as  well  to  remember.  The  things  he  has  learned 
relate  chiefly  to  elbow-room,  nature  at  first  hand,  and 
"  the  unearned  increment."  The  thing  he  is  most 
likely  to   forget  is  that  escape   from  public  opinion 


CALIFORNIA  AND  THE  CALIFORNIANS  is 

is  not  escape  from  the  consequences  of  wrong  action. 

Of  elbow-room  California  offers  abundance.  In 
an  old  civilization  men  grow  like  trees  in  a  close-set 
forest.  Individual  growth  and  symmetry  give  way 
to  the  necessity  of  crowding.  There  is  no  room  for 
spreading  branches,  and  the  characteristic  qualities 
and  fruitage  develop  only  at  the  top.  On  the  fron- 
tier men  grow  as  the  California  live  oak,  which,  in 
the  open  field,  sends  its  branches  far  and  wide. 

With  plenty  of  elbow-room  the  Californian  works 
out  his  own  inborn  character.  If  he  is  greedy, 
malicious,  intemperate,  by  nature,  his  bad  qualities 
rise  to  the  second  degree  in  California,  and  sometimes 
to  the  third.  The  whole  responsibility  rests  on  him- 
self. Society  has  no  part  of  it,  and  he  does  not  pre- 
tend to  be  what  he  is  not,  out  of  deference  to  society. 
"  Hypocrisy  is  the  homage  vice  pays  to  virtue,"  but 
in  California  no  such  homage  is  demanded  or 
accepted.  In  like  manner,  the  virtues  become  intensi- 
fied in  freedom.  Nowhere  in  the  world  can  one  find 
men  and  women  more  hospitable,  more  refined,  more 
charming,  than  in  the  homes  of  prosperous  Califor- 
nia. And  these  homes,  whether  in  the  pine  forests 
of  the  Sierras,  in  the  orange  groves  of  the  south,  in 
the  peach  orchards  of  the  Coast  range,  or  on  the 
great  stock  ranches,  are  the  delight  of  all  \isitors 
who  enter  their  open  doors.  To  be  sure,  the  bcwilil- 
ering  hospitality  of  the  great  financiers  and  greater 


1.,  C. 11. NORM. I  JM)   lllh  C.n.llOKM.lSS 

gamblers  of  the  sixties  and  seventies  is  a  thing  of  the 
past.  We  shall  never  again  see  such  prodigal  enter- 
tainment as  that  which  Ralston,  bankrupt,  cynical, 
and  magnificent,  once  dispensed  in  Belmont  Canon. 
Nor  do  we  find,  nowadays,  such  lavish  outgiving  of 
fruit  and  wine,  or  such  rushing  of  tally-hos,  as  once 
preceded  the  auction  sale  of  town  lots  in  paper  cities. 
These  gorgeous  "  spreads  "  were  not  hospitality,  and 
disappeared  when  the  traveler  had  learned  his  lesson. 
Their  avowed  purpose  was  "  the  sale  of  worthless 
land  to  old  duffers  from  the  East."  But  real  hospital- 
ity is  characteristic  of  all  parts  of  California  where 
men  and  women  have  an  income  beyond  the  needs  of 
the  day. 

To  a  v^ery  unusual  degree  the  Californian  forms 
his  own  opinions  on  matters  of  politics,  religion,  and 
human  life,  and  these  views  he  expresses  without  re- 
serve. His  own  head  he  "carries  under  his  own  hat," 
and  whether  this  be  silk  or  a  sombrero  is  a  matter 
of  his  own  choosing.  The  dictates  of  church  and 
party  have  no  binding  force  on  him.  The  Californian 
does  not  confine  his  views  to  abstractions.  He  has  his 
own  opinions  of  individual  men  and  women.  If  need 
be,  he  will  analyze  the  character,  motives,  and  actions 
of  his  neighbor  In  a  way  which  will  horrify  the  trav- 
eler who  has  grown  up  in  the  shade  of  a  libel  law. 

The  typical  Californian  has  largelv  outgrown 
provincialism.     He  has  seen  much  of  the  world,  and 


.-'.'ilU 


'4 


CALIFORMA  AXD  THE  CAIJFORMASS  i9 

he  knows  the  varied  worth  of  varied  lands.  He 
travels  more  widely  than  the  man  of  any  other  state, 
and  he  has  the  education  which  travel  gives.  As  a 
rule,  the  well-to-do  Californian  knows  Europe  better 
than  the  average  Eastern  man  of  equal  financial  re- 
sources, and  the  chances  are  that  his  range  of  experi- 
ence includes  a  part  of  Asia  as  well.  A  knowledge  of 
his  own  country  is  a  matter  of  course.  He  has  no 
sympathy  with  "the  essential  provinciality  of  the  mind 
which  knows  the  Eastern  seaboard,  and  has  some 
measure  of  acquaintance  with  countries  and  cities, 
and  with  men  from  Ireland  to  Italy,  but  which  is 
densely  ignorant  of  our  own  vast  domain,  and  thinks 
that  all  which  lies  beyond  Philadelphia  belongs  to  the 
West."  Not  that  provincialism  is  unknown  in  Cali- 
fornia, or  that  its  occasional  exhibition  is  any  less 
absurd  or  offensive  here  than  elsewhere.  For  exam- 
ple, one  may  note  a  tendency  to  set  up  local  standards 
for  literary  work  done  in  California.  Another,  more 
harmful  idea  would  insist  that  methods  outworn  in 
the  schools  elsewhere  are  good  because  they  are  Cali- 
fornian. This  is  the  usual  provincialism  of  ignor- 
ance, and  it  is  found  the  world  over.  Especially  is  It 
characteristic  of  centers  of  population.  When  men 
come  into  contact  with  men  instead  of  with  the  torces 
of  nature,  they  mistake  their  own  conventionalities 
for  the  facts  of  existence.  It  is  not  what  life  is,  but 
what  "  the  singular  mess  we  agree  to  call  life  "  is,  that 


2(.  C.II.IIOKM.I  .IM)   rili.  C./I.I/OR.M.JXS 

interests  thcni.  In  this'  fashion  they  lose  their  real 
understanding  of  affairs,  become  the  toys  of  their 
local  environment,  and  are  marked  as  provincials  or 
tenderfeet  when  they  stray  away  from  home. 

California  is  emphatically  one  of  "  earth's  male 
lands,"  to  accept  Browning's  classification.  The  first 
Saxon  settlers  were  men,  and  in  their  rude  civilization 
women  had  no  part.  P'or  years  women  in  California 
were  objects  of  curiosity  or  of  chivalry,  disturbing 
rather  than  cementing  influences  in  society.  Even  yet 
California  is  essentially  a  man's  state.  It  is  common 
to  say  that  public  opinion  does  not  exist  there;  but 
such  a  statement  is  not  wholly  correct.  It  does  exist, 
but  it  is  an  out-of-door  public  opinion, — a  man's  view 
of  men.  There  is,  for  example,  a  strong  public  opin- 
ion against  hypocrisy,  in  California,  as  more  than  one 
clerical  renegade  has  found,  to  his  discomfiture.  The 
pretense  to  virtue  is  the  one  vice  that  is  not  forgiven. 
If  a  man  be  not  a  liar,  few  questions  are  asked,  least 
of  all  the  delicate  one  as  to  the  "  name  he  went  by 
in  the  states."  What  we  commonly  call  public  opin- 
ion— the  cut  and  dried  decision  on  social  and  civic 
questions — is  made  up  in  the  house.  It  is  essentially 
feminine  in  its  origin,  the  opinion  of  the  home  circle 
as  to  how  men  should  behave.  In  California  there  is 
little  which  corresponds  to  the  social  atmos- 
phere pervading  the  snug  white-painted,  green- 
blinded  New  England  villages,  and  this  little  exists 


CALIFORNIA  AND  THE  CALIFORNIANS  21 

chiefly  in  communities  of  people  transported  in  block, 
— traditions,  conventionalities,  prejudices,  and  all. 
There  is,  in  general,  no  merit  attached  to  conformity, 
and  one  may  take  a  wide  range  of  rope  without 
necessarily  arousing  distrust.  Speaking  broadly,  in 
California  the  virtues  of  life  spring  from  within,  and 
are  not  prescribed  from  without.  The  young  man 
who  is  decent  only  because  he  thinks  that  some  one  is 
looking,  would  do  well  to  stay  away.  The  stern  law 
of  individual  responsibility  turns  the  fool  over  to  the 
fool-killer  without  a  preliminary  trial.  No  finer  type 
of  man  can  be  found  in  the  world  than  the  sober  Cali- 
fornian ;  and  yet  no  coast  is  strewn  with  wrecks  more 
pitiful. 

There  are  some  advantages  in  the  absence  of  a 
compelling  force  of  public  opinion.  One  of  them  is 
found  in  the  strong  self-reliance  of  men  and  women 
who  have  made  and  enforced  their  own  moral  stand- 
ards. With  very  many  men  life  in  California  brings 
a  decided  strengthening  of  the  moral  fibre.  They 
must  reconsider,  justify,  and  fight  for  their  standards 
of  action;  and  by  so  doing  they  become  masters  of 
themselves.  With  men  of  weak  nature  the  result  is 
not  so  encouraging.  The  disadvantage  is  shown  in 
lax  business  methods,  official  carelessness  and  cor- 
ruption, the  widespread  corrosion  of  vulgar  vices, 
and  the  general  lack  of  pride  in  their  work  shown 
by  artisans  and  craftsmen. 


2-j  (    11.11  OKM.I  .IM)   rilh  C.II.IIORM.ISS 


In  short,  California  is  a  man's  land,  with  male 
standards  of  action, — a  land  where  one  must  give 
and  take,  stand  and  fall,  as  a  man.  With  the  growth 
of  woman's  realm  of  homes  and  houses,  this  will 
slowly  change.  It  is  changing  now,  year  by  year,  for 
good  and  ill;  and  soon  California  will  have  a  public 
opinion.  Her  sons  will  learn  to  fear  "the  rod  behind 
the  looking-glass,"  and  to  shun  evil  not  only  because 
it  is  vile,  but  because  it  is  improper. 

Contact  with  the  facts  of  nature  has  taught  the 
Californian  something  of  importance.  To  have 
elbow-room  is  to  touch  nature  at  more  angles;  and 
whenever  she  is  touched  she  is  an  insistent  teacher. 
Whatever  is  to  be  done,  the  typical  Californian  knows 
how  to  do  it,  and  how  to  do  it  well.  He  is  equal  to 
every  occasion.  He  can  cinch  his  own  saddle,  harness 
his  own  team,  bud  his  own  grapevines,  cook  his  own 
breakfast,  paint  his  own  house;  and  because  he  can- 
not go  to  the  market  for  every  little  service,  perforce 
he  serves  himself.  In  dealing  with  college  students 
in  California,  one  is  impressed  by  their  boundless 
ingenuity.  If  anything  needs  doing,  some  student 
can  do  it  for  you.  Is  it  to  sketch  a  waterfall,  to  en- 
grave a  portrait,  to  write  a  sonnet,  to  mend  a  saddle, 
to  sing  a  song,  to  build  an  engine,  or  to  "bust  a 
broncho,"  there  is  some  one  at  hand  who  can  do  it, 
and  do  it  artistically.  Varied  ingenuity  California 
demands  of  her  pioneers.    Their  native  originality  has 


CALIFORNIA  AND  THE  CALIFORNIANS  25 

been  intensified  by  circumstances,  until  it  has  become 
a  matter  of  tradition  and  habit.  The  processes  of 
natural  selection  have  favored  the  survival  of  the 
ingenious,  and  the  quality  of  adequacy  has  become 
hereditary. 

The  possibility  of  the  'unearned  increment  is  a 
great  factor  in  the  social  evolution  of  California.  Its 
influence  has  been  widespread,  persistent,  and,  in 
most  regards,  baneful.  The  Anglo-Saxon  first  came 
to  California  for  gold  to  be  had  for  the  picking  up. 
The  hope  of  securing  something  for  nothing,  money' 
or  health  without  earning  it,  has  been  the  motive  for 
a  large  share  of  the  subsequent  immigration.  From 
those  who  have  grown  rich  through  undeserved  pros- 
perity, and  from  those  who  have  grown  poor  in  the 
quest  of  it,  California  has  suffered  sorely.  Even  now, 
far  and  wide,  people  think  of  California  as  a  region 
where  wealth  is  not  dependent  on  thrift,  where  one 
can  somehow  "  strike  it  rich  "  without  that  tedious 
attention  to  details  and  expenses  which  wears  out  life 
in  effete  regions  such  as  Europe  and  the  Eastern 
States.  In  this  feeling  there  is  just  enough  of  truth 
to  keep  the  notion  alive,  but  never  enough  to  save 
from  disaster  those  who  make  it  a  working  hypothe- 
sis. The  hope  of  great  or  sudden  wealth  has  been 
the  mainspring  of  enterprise  in  California,  but  it  has 
also  been  the  excuse  for  shiftlessness  and  recklessness, 
the  cause  of  social  disintegration  and  moral  decay. 


•jG  C.ll.ll'ORM.I  J.M)  rili:  CJIJFORM./XS 

The  "Argonauts  of  '49"  were  a  strong,  selt-reliant, 
generous  body  of  men.  They  came  for  gold,  and 
gold  in  abundance.  Most  of  them  found  it,  and  some 
of  thei7i  retained  it.  Following  them  came  a  miscel- 
laneous array  of  parasites  and  plunderers;  gamblers, 
dive-keepers  and  saloon-keepers,  who  fed  fat  on  the 
spoils  of  the  Argonauts.  Every  Roaring  Camp  had 
its  Jack  Hamlin  as  well  as  its  Flynn  of  Virginia,  and 
the  wild,  strong,  generous,  reckless  aggregate  cared 
little  for  thrift,  and  wasted  more  than  they  earned. 

But  it  is  not  gold  alone  that  in  California  has 
dazzled  men  with  visions  of  sudden  wealth.  .  Orange 
groves,  peach  orchards,  prune  orchards,  wheat  rais- 
ing, lumbering,  horse-farms,  chicken-ranches,  bee- 
ranches,  seal-poaching,  cod-fishing,  salmon-canning, 
— each  of  these  has  held  out  the  same  glittering  possi- 
bility. Even  the  humblest  ventures  have  caught  the 
prevailing  tone  of  speculation.  Industry  and  trade 
have  been  followed,  not  for  a  living,  but  for  sudden 
wealth,  and  often  on  a  scale  of  personal  expenses  out 
of  all  proportion  to  the  probable  results.  In  the  six- 
ties, when  the  gold-fever  began  to  subside,  it  was 
found  that  the  despised  "cow  counties"  would  bear 
marvelous  crops  of  wheat.  At  once  wheat-raising  was 
undertaken  on  a  grand  scale.  Farms  of  five  thousand 
to  fifty  thousand  acres  were  established  on  the  old 
Spanish  grants  in  the  valleys  of  the  Coast  Range 
and  in  the  interior. 


CALIFORNIA  AND  THE  CALIFORNIANS  27 

The  working  out  of  most  of  the  phicer  mines  and 
the  advent  of  quartz-crushing  with  elaborate  machin- 
ery have  changed  gold-mining  from  speculation  to 
regular  business,  to  the  great  advantage  of  the  state. 
In  the  same  manner  the  development  of  irrigation  is 
changing  the  character  of  farming  in  many  parts  of 
California.  In  the  early  days  fruit-raising  was  of  the 
nature  of  speculation,  but  the  spread  of  irrigation  has 
brought  it  Into  more  wholesome  relations.  To  irri- 
gate a  tract  of  land  is  to  make  its  product  certain; 
but  at  the  same  time  irrigation  demands  expenditure 
of  money,  and  the  building  of  a  home  necessarily 
follows.  Irrigation  thus  tends  to  break  up  the  vast 
farms  Into  small  holdings  which  become  permanent 
homes. 

On  land  well  chosen,  carefully  planted,  and  thrift- 
ily managed,  an  orchard  of  pnmes  or  of  oranges 
should  reward  Its  possessor  with  a  comfortable  living, 
besides  occasionally  an  unexpected  profit  thrown  in. 
But  too  often  men  have  not  been  content  with  the 
usual  return,  and  have  planted  trees  with  a  view  only 
to  the  unearned  profits.  To  make  an  honest  living 
from  the  sale  of  oranges  or  prunes  is  quite  another 
thing  from  acquiring  sudden  wealth.  When  a  man 
without  experience  In  fruit-raising  or  in  general  econ- 
omy comes  to  California,  buys  land  on  b()rr()\\C(.l 
capital,  plants  it  without  discrimination,  aiul  spends 
his  profits  in  advance,  there  can  be  but  one  result. 


2e  CALIFORNIA  AND  THE  CALIFORNIANS 

Ihc  laws  of  economics  arc  inexorable  even  in  Cali- 
fornia. One  of  the  curses  of  the  state  is  the  "fool 
fruit-grower,"  with  neither  knowledge  nor  con- 
science in  the  management  of  his  business.  Thousands 
of  trees  have  been  planted  on  ground  unsuitable  for 
the  purpose,  and  thousands  of  trees  which  ought  to 
have  done  well  have  died  through  his  neglect. 
Through  his  agency  frozen  oranges  are  sent  to  East- 
ern markets  under  his  neighbor's  brands,  and  most 
needlessly  his  varied  follies  have  spoiled  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  best  of  fruit. 

The  great  body  of  immigrants  to  California  have 
been  sound  and  earnest,  fit  citizens  of  the  young 
state,  but  this  is  rarely  true  of  seekers  of  the  unearned 
increment.  No  one  is  more  greedy  for  money  than 
the  man  who  can  never  get  any.  Rumors  of  golden 
chances  have  brought  in  a  steady  stream  of  incompe- 
tents from  all  places  and  all  strata  of  social  life.  From 
the  common  tramp  to  the  inventor  of  "perpetual 
motions"  in  mechanics  or  in  Sociology,  is  a  long  step 
in  the  moral  scale,  but  both  are  alike  in  their  eagerness 
to  escape  from  the  "competitive  social  order"  of  the 
East,  in  which  their  abilities  found  no  recognition. 
Whoever  has  deservedly  failed  in  the  older  states 
is  sure  at  least  once  in  his  life  to  think  of  redeeming 
his  fortunes  in  California.  Once  on  the  Pacific  slope 
the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  his  return  seem  insur- 
mountable.    The  dread  of  the  winter's  cold  alone  is 


"  while  trom  the  crags  leap  full  thioa'eii  streams 


CALIFORMA  AM)  THE  CAIJFOR.MAXS  :n 

in  most  cases  a  deterrent  factor.  Thus  San  Fran- 
cisco, by  force  of  circumstances,  has  become  the  hop- 
per into  which  fall  incompetents  from  all  the  world, 
and  from  which  few  escape.  The  city  contains  about 
three  hundred  thousand  people.  Of  these,  a  vast 
number,  thirty  thousand  to  fifty  thousand,  it  may  be, 
have  no  real  business  in  San  Francisco.  They  live 
from  hand  to  mouth,  by  odd  jobs  that  might  be  better 
done  by  better  people;  and  whatever  their  success 
in  making  a  living,  they  swell  the  army  of  discon- 
tent, and  confound  all  attempts  to  solve  industrial 
problems.  In  this  rough  estimate  I  do  not  count 
San  Francisco's  own  poor,  of  which  there  is  a  moder- 
ate proportion,  but  only  those  who  have  drifted  in 
from  the  outside.  I  would  include,  however,  not 
only  those  who  are  economically  impotent,  but  also 
those  who  follow  the  weak  for  predatory  ends.  In 
this  last  category  I  place  a  certain  number  of  saloon- 
keepers; a  class  of  so-called  lawyers;  a  long  line  of 
soothsayers,  clairvoyants,  lottery  agents,  and  joint- 
keepers,  besides  gamblers,  sweaters,  promoters  of 
"medical  institutes,"  magnetic,  psychical,  and  magic 
"healers,"  and  other  types  of  unhanged,  but  more 
or  less  pendable,  scoundrels  that  feed  upon  the 
life-blood  of  the  weak  and  foolish.  Fhe  other  cities 
of  California  have  had  a  similar  experience.  F.ach 
has  its  reputation  for  hospitality,  and  each  has  a  con- 
siderable population  which  has  come  in   from  other 


:\->  CIIIIORMI    IM)   rill.  C.II.II'OKM.LWS 

regions  because  incapable  of  making  its  own  way.  It 
is  not  the  poor  and  helpless  alone  who  are  the  victims 
of  imposition.  1  here  are  fools  in  all  walks  of  life. 
Many  a  well-dressed  man  or  woman  can  be  found  in 
the  rooms  of  the  clairvoyant  or  the  Chinese  "  doctor." 
In  matters  of  health,  especially,  men  grasp  at  the 
most  unpromising  straws.  In  one  city  lately  visited, 
I  found  scarcely  a  business  block  that  did  not  con- 
tain at  least  one  human  leech  under  the  trade  name 
of  "  healer,"  metaphysical,  electrical,  astral,  divine, 
or  what  not.  And  these  will  thrive  so  long  as  men 
seek  health  or  fortune  with  closed  eyes  and  open 
hands. 

In  no  way  has  the  unearned  increment  been  more 
mischievous  than  in  the  booming  of  cities.  With  the 
growth  of  towns  comes  increase  in  the  value  of  the 
holdings  of  those  who  hold  and  wait.  If  the  city 
grows  rapidly  enough,  these  gains  may  be  inordinately 
great.  The  marvelous  beauty  of  Southern  California 
and  the  charm  of  its  climate  have  impressed  thous- 
ands of  people.  Two  or  three  times  this  impression 
has  been  epidemic.  At  one  time  almost  every  bluff 
along  the  coast,  from  Los  Angeles  to  San  Diego  and 
beyond,  was  staked  out  in  town  lots.  The  wonderful 
climate  was  everywhere,  and  everywhere  men  had  it 
for  sale,  not  only  along  the  coast,  but  throughout  the 
orange-bearing  region  of  the  interior.  Every  resident 
bought  lots,  all  the  lots  he  could  hold.     The  tourist 


CALIFORNIA  AND  THE  CAIJFORMAXS  n 

took  his  hand  in  speculation.  Corner  lots  in  San 
Diego,  Del  Mar,  Azusa,  Redlands,  Riverside,  Pasa- 
dena, anywhere,  brought  fabulous  prices.  A  village 
was  laid  out  in  the  uninhabited  bed  of  a  mountain 
torrent,  and  men  stood  in  the  streets  in  Los  Angeles, 
ranged  in  line,  all  night  long,  to  wait  their  turn  in 
buying  lots.  Worthless  land  and  inaccessible,  barren 
cliffs,  river-wash,  sand  hills,  cactus  deserts,  sinks  of 
alkali,  everything  met  with  ready  sale.  The  belief 
that  Southern  California  would  be  one  great  city  was 
universal.  The  desire  to  buy  became  a  mania.  "  Mil- 
lionaires of  a  day,"  even  the  shrewdest  lost  their 
heads,  and  the  boom  ended,  as  such  booms  always 
end,  in  utter  collapse. 

Mr.  T.  S.  Van  Dyke,  of  San  Diego,  has  written 
of  this  collapse:  "The  money  market  tightened  al- 
most on  the  instant.  From  every  quarter  of  the  land 
the  drain  of  money  outward  had  been  enormous,  and 
had  been  balanced  only  by  the  immense 
amount  constantly  coming  in.  Almost  from 
the  day  this  inflow  ceased  money  seemed 
scarce  everywhere,  for  the  outgo  still  con- 
tinued. Not  only  were  vast  sums  going  out  ever)'  day 
for  water-pipe,  railroad  iron,  cement,  lumber,  and 
other  material  for  the  great  improvements  going  on 
in  every  direction,  most  of  which  material  had  al- 
ready been  ordered,  but  thousands  more  were  still 
going  out  for  diamonds  and  a  host  of  other  things 


;;i  C.II.IIOKM.I  .IM)   I' I  li.  C.I  1 .1  lORM  .1  \S 

already  bought — things  that  only  increase  the  general 
indebtedness  of  a  community  by  making  those  who 
cannot  atiord  them  imitate  those  who  can.  And  tens 
of  thousands  more  were  going  out  for  butter,  eggs, 
pork,  and  even  potatoes  and  other  vegetables,  which 
the  luxurious  boomers  thought  it  beneath  the  dignity 
of  millionaires  to  raise." 

But  the  normal  growth  of  Los  Angeles  and  her 
sister  towns  has  gone  on,  in  spite  of  these  spasms  of 
fever  and  their  consequent  chills.  Their  real  advan- 
tages could  not  be  obscured  by  the  bursting  of  finan- 
cial bubbles.  By  reason  of  situation  and  climate  they 
have  continued  to  attract  men  of  wealth  and  enter- 
prise, as  well  as  those  in  search  of  homes  and  health. 

The  search  for  the  unearned  increment  in  bodily 
health  brings  many  to  California  who  might 
better  have  remained  at  home.  The  invalid  finds 
health  in  California  only  if  he  is  strong  enough  to 
grasp  it.  To  one  who  can  spend  his  life  out  of  doors 
it  is  indeed  true  that  "  our  pines  are  trees  of  heal- 
ing," but  to  one  confined  to  the  house,  there  is  little 
gain  in  the  new  conditions.  To  those  accustomed  to 
the  close  heat  of  Eastern  rooms  the  California  house 
in  the  winter  seems  depressingly  chilly. 

I  know  of  few  things  more  pitiful  than  the  annual 
migration  of  hopeless  consumptives  to  Los  Angeles, 
Pasadena,  and  San  Diego.  The  Pullman  cars  in  the 
winter   are    full   of  sick   people,   banished    from   the 


CALIFORNIA  AND  THE  CALIFORNIANS  in 

East  by  physicians  who  do  not  know  what  else  to  do 
with  their  incurable  patients.  They  go  to  the  large 
hotels  of  Los  Angeles  or  Pasadena,  and  pay  a  rate 
they  cannot  afford.  They  shiver  in  half-warmed 
rooms;  take  cold  after  cold;  their  symptoms  grow 
alarming;  their  money  wastes  away;  and  finally,  in 
utter  despair,  they  are  hurried  back  homeward,  per- 
haps to  die  on  board  the  train.  Or  it  may  be  that 
they  choose  cheap  lodging-houses,  at  prices  more 
nearly  within  their  reach.  Here  again,  they  suffer  for 
want  of  home  food,  home  comforts,  and  home 
warmth,  and  the  end  is  just  the  same.  People  hope- 
lessly ill  should  remain  with  their  friends;  even  Cali- 
fornia has  no  health  to  give  to  those  who  cannot  earn 
it,  in  part  at  least,  by  their  own  exertions. 

It  is  true  that  the  "one-lunged  people"  form  a 
considerable  part  of  the  population  of  Southern  Cali- 
fornia. It  is  also  true  that  no  part  of  our  Union  has 
a  better  population,  and  that  many  of  these  men  and 
women  are  now  as  robust  and  vigorous  as  one  could 
desire.  But  this  happy  change  is  possible  only  to 
those  in  the  first  stages  of  the  disease.  Out-of-door 
life  and  physical  activity  enable  the  system  to  suppress 
the  germs  of  disease,  but  climate  without  activity  does 
not  cure.  So  far  as  climate  is  concerned,  many  parts 
of  the  arid  regions  in  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  and 
Colorado  as  well  as  portions  of  Old  Mexico  (Cuerna- 
vaca  or  Morelia   for  example)    arc  more   favorable 


■AH  C./IJ/'OR.M.I  ./\I)   rill':  CJIJI'ORM.IXS 

than  California,  because  they  are  protected  from  the 
chill  of  the  sea.  Another  class  of  health-seekers  re- 
ceives less  sympathy  in  California,  and  perhaps  de- 
serves less.  Jaundiced  hypochondriacs  and  neurotic 
wrecks  shiver  in  California  winter  boarding-houses, 
torment  themselves  with  ennui  at  the  country  ranches, 
poison  themselves  with  "  nerve  foods,"  and  perhaps 
finally  survive  to  write  the  sad  and  squalid  "  truth 
about  California."  Doubtless  it  is  all  inexpressibly 
tedious  to  them;  subjective  woe  is  always  hard  to 
bear — but  it  is  not  California. 

There  are  others,  too,  who  are  disaffected,  but  I 
need  not  stop  to  discuss  them  or  their  points  of  view. 
It  is  true,  in  general,  that  few  to  whom  anything  else 
is  anywhere  possible  find  disappointment  in  Cali- 
fornia. 

With  all  this,  the  social  life  is,  in  its  essentials, 
that  of  the  rest  of  the  United  States,  for  the  same 
blood  flows  in  the  veins  of  those  whose  influence  dom- 
inates it.  Under  all  its  deviations  and  variations  lies 
the  old  Puritan  conscience,  which  is  still  the  backbone 
of  the  civilization  of  the  republic.  Life  in  California 
is  a  little  fresher,  a  little  freer,  a  good  deal  richer,  in 
its  physical  aspects,  and  for  these  reasons,  more  in- 
tensely and  characteristically  American.  With  per- 
haps ninety-five  per  cent  of  identity  there  is  five  per 
cent  of  divergence,  and  this  five  per  cent  I  have  em- 
phasized even  to  exaggeration.    We  know  our  friends 


Uf^': 


^V 


V 


'■.,  V 


CALIFORXIA  AND  THE  CALIFORXIAXS  4i 

by  their  slight  difierences  in  feature  or  expression, 
not  by  their  common  humanity.  Much  of  this  diver- 
gence is  already  fading  away.  Scenery  and  climate 
remain,  but  there  is  less  elbow-room,  and  the  unearned 
increment  is  disappearing.  That  which  is  solid  will 
endure;  the  rest  wmII  vanish.  The  forces  that  ally  us 
to  the  East  are  growing  stronger  every  year  with  the 
immigration  of  men  with  new  ideas.  The  vigorous 
growth  of  the  two  universities  in  California  insures 
the  elevation  as  well  as  the  retention  of  these  ideas. 
Through  their  influence  California  will  contribute 
a  generous  share  to  the  social  development  of  the 
East,  and  be  a  giver  as  well  as  a  receiver. 

To-day  the  pressure  of  higher  education  is  greater 
to  the  square  mile,  if  we  may  use  such  an  expression, 
than  anywhere  else  in  our  country.  In  no  other  state 
is  the  path  from  the  farmhouse  to  the  college  so  well 
trodden  as  here.  It  requires  no  prophet  to  forecast 
the  educational  pre-eminence  of  California,  for  the 
basis  of  intellectual  development  is  already  assured. 
But  however  close  the  alliance  with  Eastern  culture, 
to  the  last  certain  traits  will  persist.  California  is  the 
most  cosmopolitan  of  all  the  states  of  the  Union,  and 
such  she  will  remain.  Whatever  the  fates  may  bring, 
her  people  will  be  tolerant,  hopeful,  and  adequate, 
sure  of  themselves,  masters  of  the  present,  fearless  of 
the  future. 


THE     ALPS      OF      THE 
KING  -  KERN       DIVIDE 


The  East  Vidette 


I  a  |ih.ito  by  I-e  C.inte 


THE  ALPS  OF  THE 
KING- KERN  DIVIDE 


The  high  Sierras,  the  huge  crests  at  the  head  of 

the  King's,  Kern,   Kaweah,  and  San  Joaquin  rivers, 

are  Alps  indeed,  not  lower  than  the  grandest  of  those 

in  Europe,  and  scarcely  inferior  in  magnificence.  The 

number  of  peaks  in  this  region  which  pass  the  limit 

of  13,000  feet  is  not  less  than  in  all  Switzerland.  The 

highest  of  these  peaks.  Mount  Whitney,  is  given  by 

Prof.  J.  N.  Le  Conte  as  14,522  feet  in  height.     It  is 

thus  a  little  lower  than  the  Matterhorn    (14,705), 

while  Mt.  Blanc  (15,731),  Monte  Rosa   (15,366), 

the    Mischabelhorn    (14,941),    and   the    Weisshorn 

(14,803),  outrank  it  a  little  more.     But  virtually  all 

reach  much  the  same  level,  and  between  these  peaks, 

and   the   next   in    rank   in    Switzerland,    the    Finster 

Aarhorn  (14,026),  California  claims  a  good  many, 

notably     Mount     Williamson     (14,448),     Tyndall 

(14,360),      Jordan      (14,212),      Junction      (about 

14,200),  two  of  the  Kaweahs  (14,139  and  14, 141 ), 

and  Barnard,  Keith,  Agassiz's  Needles,  Dusy,  Sheep 

Mountain,  Milestone,  and  the  South  Palisade,  each 

something   over    14,000    feet,    and    a    host   of   high 

points  as  University  of  California   Peak    (13,900), 

Gould  Peak    (13,391),   Rixford,  Brewer   (13,886), 

Stanford  (14,100),  Ericson   (13,900),  Lycll,  and  a 


4(i     rill:  .11. rs  or  i  iir  Ki\(;-KrR.\  Dirinr 

host  of  others  named  and  unnamed  which  fall  but 
little  below.  In  this  we  need  not  mention  Shasta 
(14,400),  tall,  lone  and  tremendous,  but  which  is 
put  up  independently  on  a  different  plan  in  another 
part  of  the  State. 

If  for  a  moment  we  compare  the  high  Sierra 
Nevada  with  the  Alps,  we  find  in  the  mountains  of 
Switzerland  greater  variety  of  form,  and  of  rock 
formation,  and  with  greater  picturesqueness  in  color, 
the  white  of  the  snow  being  sharply  contrasted  with 
the  green  of  the  flower-carpeted  pastures.  The  rain- 
fall and  the  snowfall  of  the  Alps  is  far  more  exces- 
sive, hence  all  the  deep  valleys  are  filled  with  snow, 
the  canons  are  glaciers,  the  vast  slow-melting  snow 
masses  become  compacted  into  ice  before  they  disap- 
pear. 

The  Sierras  are  richer  in  color,  and  they  throb 
with  life.  The  dry  air  that  flows  over  them  is  stimu- 
lating, balsam-laden,  and  always  transparent  to  the 
vision.  The  Alps  are  almost  always  bathed  or 
swathed  in  clouds.  Their  air  is  clear  only  when  it 
has  been  newly  washed  by  some  wild  storm.  When  a 
storm  is  over,  the  sky  soonis  needs  washing  again, 
and  in  its  blue  reaches  is  full  of  a  streamy  suggestion 
as  though  it  had  not  been  properly  dried. 

The  glacial  basins  of  the  high  Sierras,  huge  tracts 
of  polished  granite,  furrowed  by  streams  and  fringed 
with   mountain  vegetation,   are   far  more  impressive 


THE  ALPS  OF  THE  KING-KERN  DIVIDE     49 

than  similar  regions  in  the  Alps.  In  the  Alps  the 
glaciers  are  still  alive  and  at  work.  In  the  Sierras, 
a  few  little  ones  are  left  here  and  there,  high  on  the 
flanks  of  precipices,  but  the  valleys  below  them,  once 
filled  with  ice,  are  now  bare,  slicken  and  sharp-backed 
or  clogged  with  moraines,  just  as  the  glaciers  left 
them.  The  wreck  of  the  vanished  glacier,  as  in 
Ouzel  Basin  of  Mt.  Brewer,  and  Desolation  Valley 
of  Pyramid  Peak,  may  tell  us  more  of  what  a  glacier 
does  than  a  living  glacier  itself. 

The  forests  of  the  Sierras  are  beyond  comparison 
nobler  than  those  of  the  Alps.  The  pine,  fir,  and 
larch  woods  of  Switzerland  are  only  second  growth, 
mere  brush,  by  the  side  of  the  huge  pines  (Sugar 
Pine,  Yellow  Pine,  and  High  Mountain  Pine)  of  the 
flanks  of  the  Sierras.  Giant  firs  and  spruces,  too, 
rival  the  largest  trees  on  earth,  while  above  all, 
supremely  pre-eminent  over  all  other  vegetation, 
towers  the  giant  Sequoia,  mightiest  of  trees.  On  a 
small  tree,  ten  feet  through,  cut  at  Sequoia  Mills,  I 
counted  1902  rings  of  annual  growth.  This  tree 
was  a  sapling,  four  feet  through,  at  the  time  of  the 
fall  of  Rome.  The  greatest  Sequoias,  happily  yet 
uncut,  have  doubtless  four  times  this  age,  and  it  is 
safe  to  say  many  of  them  have  stood  on  earth  at 
least  8000  years.  Converse,  the  discoverer  of  the 
Converse  Basin,  in  Tulare  County,  claims  to  have 
counted   11,000  rings. 


50    yv/A  .iLPs  ()/''  I  III:  KJ.\(;-Ki'j<.\  niriDE 

So  far  as  man  is  concerned,  there  are  great  differ- 
ences between  the  Sierras  and  the  Alps.  The  Alps 
have  good  roads,  trails,  hotels  everywhere.  They  are 
thoroughly  civilized,  provided  with  guides,  guide- 
posts,  ropes  and  railings,  and  the  traveler,  whatever 
else  he  may  do,  cannot  go  astray.  If  he  gets  lost  he 
has  plenty  of  company.  The  Sierras  are  uninhabited. 
In  their  high  reaches  there  is  no  hotel,  and  not  often 
a  shed  or  a  roof  of  any  kind.  The  trails  are  rough, 
and  when  one  climbs  out  from  the  caiions  he  has 
only  to  go  as  he  pleases.  But  wherever  he  goes  he 
cannot  fail  to  be  pleased.  The  Sierras  are  far  more 
hospitable  than  the  Alps,  and  the  danger  of  accident 
is  far  less.  Every  day  in  the  Alps  may  be  a  day  of 
storm,  and  no  one  can  safely  sleep  in  the  open  air. 
In  the  Sierras  there  are  but  two  or  three  rainy  days 
in  the  summer,  and  these  are  thunder-showers  in 
August  afternoons.  The  weather  is  scarcely  a  factor 
to  be  considered;  every  day  is  a  good  day,  one  or  two 
perhaps  a  little  better. 

The  traveler  is  sure  of  dry,  clear  air,  a  little 
brisk  and  frosty  in  the  morning,  making  a  blanket 
welcome,  but  all  he  needs  is  a  blanket.  For  luxury 
he  will  make  a  bonfire  of  dry  branches — pine,  cedar, 
Cottonwood,  all  burn  alike — and  there  is  always  a 
dead  tree  ready  to  his  hand.  He  will  build  his  fire 
near  the  brook  that  he  may  put  out  its  smoldering 
embers  in  the  morning.     No  matter  how  high  his 


THE  ALPS  OF  THE  KING-KERN  DUIDE     o.i 

flame  may  rise  in  the  evening,  with  morning  only 
embers  are  left.  And  surely  no  mountain  lover  will 
leave  his  fire  uncovered  to  burn  and  murder  its  way 
through  the  forest.  The  United  States  government 
now  has  its  rangers  out  to  protect  the  forests  from 
fire,  and  to  punish  the  careless  camper,  be  he  angler, 
mountaineer,  or  prospector.  This  is  most  wise,  and 
it  should  have  been  done  long  ago.  More  than  this 
the  State  or  government  should  never  let  another 
acre  of  land  on  the  Sierras  be  denuded  of  its  timber. 
On  the  preservation  of  our  forests  depends  the  fer- 
tility of  our  plains.  To  California  this  matter  is 
vital  above  all  others.  Commerce  will  come  in  due 
time  whatever  we  do;  but  a  forest  once  uprooted, 
we  can  never  restore.  The  great  Calaveras  grove 
of  Sequoias  is  now  for  sale,  the  first  known,  and, 
perhaps,  the  most  picturesque  of  all,  going  to  the 
lumber  man  who  will  make  the  highest  bid.  To 
destroy  this  noblest  of  groves  for  the  lumber  that  is  in 
it  would  be  barbarous.  There  should  be  but  one 
bidder  for  the  Calaveras  grove — the  people  of  the 
United  States.  We  cannot  call  ourselves  civilized  if 
we  stand  by,  consenting  to  its  destruction,  as  we  have 
done  to  the  slaughter  of  the  great  Sequoias  of  the 
Converse  Basin,  with  brush,  sawdust  and  soil,  all, 
save  the  primeval  granite,  all  vanishing  in  the  final 
conflagration  of  the  abandoned  lumber  camps. 
1/     In  the  high  Sierras,  the  form  of  the  mountains 


M      /7//'  .ll.l'S  OF  THE  KI\G-KhR\  DiriDE 

I'axors  the  climber.  J',ach  peak  is  part  of  a  great 
anticlinal  fold,  broken  and  precipitous  on  the  east 
side,  retaining  the  original  slope  on  the  west.  Most 
of  the  mountains  about  Mt.  Whitney  share  the  form 
of  that  mountain.  A  gentle  slope  on  the  west  side, 
covered  by  broken,  frost-bitten  rocks;  on  the  east 
side  a  perpendicular  descent  to  an  abyss.  On  the 
east  and  north  almost  every  peak  is  vertical  and  inac- 
cessible, while  the  west  side  offers  no  difficulty.  Only 
time  and  patience  are  demanded  to  creep  upward 
over  the  broken  stones  and  climb  the  highest  of  them. 
All  of  them  require  endurance,  for  they  are  very  high, 
but  few  of  them  demand  any  special  skill  or  any  ner- 
vous strain,  and  the  views  the  summits  yield  are  most 
repaying.       "^ 

To  reach  the  best  of  them  one  should  leave  the 
Southern  Pacific  railroad  at  Sanger.  Here  he  meets 
the  stages  which  run  to  the  Converse  Basin.  In  a 
ride,  preferably  taken  at  night,  all  night,  he  crosses 
the  hot  plains  of  the  foothills.  Turning  in  at  mid- 
night, he  sleeps  till  morning,  then  taking  the  stage 
again,  he  rides  up  hill  all  day,  past  Millwood,  the 
General  Grant  National  Park,  with  its  giant  Se- 
quoias, and  through  the  pine  forests  to  Huckleberry 
Camp.  Here  he  is  met  by  a  troop  of  saddle  horses, 
and  a  charming  day's  ride  obliquely  down  the  slopes 
of  King's  River  Caiion,  brings  him  at  night  to  a 
camp  in  the  river  bottom.     There  may  be  a  house 


A.  wf^iir^^ 


THE  ALPS  OF  THE  KIXG-KERN  DIVIDE     57 

there  or  a  tent,  but  he  needs  neither,  for  night  is  full 
of  stars — and  the  stars  keep  off  the  rain.  Taking 
his  horse  again  in  the  morning,  by  noon  he  reaches  the 
Sentinel  Camp,  which  is  the  best  center  for  excur- 
sions. Hence  are  usually  horses,  mules,  tents,  and 
blankets  for  rent,  and  provisions  for  sale,  so  that 
henceforth  all  the  traveler  needs  to  take  with  him  will 
be  strong  clothing,  stout  nailed  shoes,  and  good 
temper. 

The  King's  River  Canon  he  will  contrast  with  the 
Yosemite.  The  Yosemite  has  finer  single  rocks, 
higher  single  cliffs,  far  more  majestic  waterfalls,  and 
a  general  air  of  perfection  as  scenery.  The  King's 
River  Canon  is  on  a  larger  scale,  with  higher  walls, 
which  slope  backward  out  of  sight,  and  the  moun- 
tains into  which  it  rises  are  far  wilder  and  more 
stupendous. 

The  traveler  will  not  be  long  in  the  Cation  before 
he  will  want  to  climb  up  to  take  a  look  at  some  of 
these.  He  may  wind  up  the  dusty  trail  to  Goat 
Mountain  and  see  them  all  at  once  in  glorious  waves 
of  distances.  He  may,  perhaps,  crawl  to  the  top  of 
the  grand  Sentinel  and  see  some  of  them  at  another 
angle. I  He  may  wander  to  Kearsarge  Pass,  on  the  ■ 
Main  Divide,  at  the  head  of  the  Caiion,  and  see  the 
world  from  one  of  the  three  great  peaks,  Rixford, 
Gould,  or  the  highest  of  all,  the  huge  mass  of  crumb- 
ling  granite   called    University   of    California    Peak. 


r.s       rill:  .11. rS  Ol'  I  III:  KI\(,-KIJ<\  1)11  I  Dli 

Or  he  may  turn  toward  the  heart  of  the  mountains 
themselves  and  hiy  his  camp  at  T'ast  Lake  in  the 
C)u/cl  Basin,  the  wonderful  glaciated  north  slope  of 
Mt.  Brewer.  Here  John  Muir  studied  the  water- 
ouzel  in  its  home,  and  wrote  of  it  the  best  biography 
yet  given  of  any  bird;  and  here,  too,  you  may  watch 
the  ouzel  and  the  winter  wren,  the  marmot  and  the 
mountain  chipmunks. 

Here  you  may  climb  Mt.  Brewer  ( 13,886  feet), 
the  culminating  outpost  of  the  cross-divide  between 
the  King's  and  the  Kern.  Or  you  may  go  farther, 
turning  eastward  into  the  very  center  of  the  frost- 
king's  domains,  climbing  the  gorge  of  turbulent 
Stanford  brook,  past  stately  Crag  Ericsson,  over 
Harrison's  Pass,  an  old  sheep  trail,  steep,  dusty,  and 
hopeless,  to  the  frost-bitten  crag  named  Stanford. 
This  peak  lies  in  the  King's-Kern  divide,  in  the  very 
center  of  the  high  Sierras.  It  is  a  double-topped 
ridge,  the  highest  summit  14,100  feet,  the  southern- 
most, known  as  Gregory's  Monument,  about  20  feet 
lower. 

From  this  peak  one  may  see  nearly  all  the  high 
Sierras,  from  the  San  Joaquin  Alps  on  the  north  to 
the  Kern  Alps  on  the  south;  and  whoso  once  climbs 
this  crag  or  the  peak  of  its  sister  university,  or  any 
other  of  their  craggy  brethren,  has  earned  a  place  in 
the  roll  of  honor  of  those  "whose  feet  are  beautiful 
on  the  mountains."     He  will   join  the  Sierra   Club. 


THE  ALPS  OF  THE  KE\G-KER\  DlllDE     hs 

He  will  fight  in  every  way  he  knows  against  the 
wanton  destruction  of  our  forests  and  the  desecration 
of  our  mountains,  and  whenever  the  fates  permit,  he 
will  wander  back  to  the  "  heart  of  the  Sierras,"  the 
Ouzel  Basin,  and  the  Mountains  of  the  Great 
Divide  ! 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA   LlltK AKV 

Los  AngclcM 

This  b(N>k  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  Ik-Iow. 


<i. 


Uhvni 


JUN  f^ 

^.  L/  t 


"     WAR     f^  IS7: 


Form  L9-Series  444 


REC'D 


,.D/C/^.it 


Al 


^^^IfJ^ 


OL    OCT  OR  1986 

*  REC'D  LDURt 

ftEC'D  LD'UM 

I  UN  1  3  1986 
JUN  1  3 1986 


F 

866 

J76 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  EArillTY 


AA    001  161  489    8 


'#k 


ft? 


